MelbourneAccountability Statement

1. This water accounting report has been prepared and presented in accordance with the Exposure Draft of Australian Water Accounting Standard 1, with the following exceptions:

No Assurance Statement was prepared because the standard for, and practice of, assurance of water accounting reports have yet to be developed.

The Accountability Statement does not present information that would assist users to understand and evaluate the accountability of water managers because of the impracticality of doing so in this report.

Notes on the quantification approaches and levels of uncertainty are incomplete because the knowledge base is often inadequate.

No information is disclosed about material events that occurred after 30 June 2011, such as extreme precipitation and significant water rights purchases. This information is publicly available elsewhere.

No information is disclosed about water for social and cultural benefit.

2. The report has been compiled from the best data available, as detailed in the water accounting statement Notes, in the time available to compile it from a number of sources. Some data quality compromises have been made by the Bureau of Meteorology for the sake of a nationally-consistent approach to report preparation and presentation.

3. All significant and specific interpretations of the Exposure Draft of Australian Water Accounting Standard 1 for the purpose of the preparation of this report are explained in the water accounting policy Notes. The Bureau of Meteorology is responsible for these interpretations.